NEW YORK, 5:07 AM, WED MAY 14 | 51 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@gizmodo.com | SUBMIT A TIP | RSS
UK | FR | NL | IT | DE | SP | JP | AU
Posts Tagged “

Theft

bikes

Preventing Bike Theft by Parking Bikes Up in the Air

Bike theft is a pretty sizable problem in cities, with only the most industrial-strength locks keeping nimble-fingered thieves from taking off with your two-wheeler. This Bike Tree concept helps alleviate this problem by raising bikes up and out of reach of bike thieves. It also helps save space, allowing more bikes to be parked in a smaller area. I like it; let's see some of these installed in NYC, eh? [Coroflot via Treehugger]

isight theft prevention

Stolen MacBook Victim Uses Screen Sharing and iSight to Bust Thieves

A White Plains, NY woman who was the victim of burglary, including her MacBook, used the Back To My Mac screen sharing feature to turn on her webcam and capture images of the unwitting culprits using the computer. As a result, police were able to arrest the thieves and recover most of the stolen goods, which included two laptops, two flat-screen televisions, two iPods, gaming consoles, DVDs and computer games. More »

laptops

Intel Working on Anti-Theft Tech for Laptops

Intel is currently hard at work on its new Anti-Theft Technology (ATT), a relatively vague new project that would help prevent theft by making a computer inoperable without the owner's permission. It differs from disc encryption methods of protection by rendering the computer inoperable even if the drive has been swapped out. Intel's currently working with a number of other companies on the project, but don't expect to see the fruits of their labor until the fourth quarter of this year or later. [ArsTechnica]

cellphones

Question: How Many Cops Does It Take to Bust a Ring of Cellphone Thieves?

This many, apparently. This was the scene in North London yesterday afternoon, as 600 cops in scary riot gear marched up a suburban street on their way to knock some thievin' heads together. More »

crime

TechnoCrime: How Not to Steal an iPod to Look at Naked Girls

Everyone here at Giz has been a 14-year-old boy before (yes, EVERYONE), so we know how tempting it is to want to see your classmates naked. Well, stealing her iPod and then demanding that she film herself "performing a sex act" before you return it is probably the wrong way to go about it. Trust us. We tried this when we were kids, but it was a Neo Geo and camcorders were so big and heavy that she had to get her dad to hold it. The principle was the same! Don't do it! [Quad City Times via Macenstein via Crunchgear]

theft

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Are The New Hotel Robe

While hotels are used to catering to the shady sides of society—there's good reason that rooms are void of blacklight fixtures and stocked to the gills with plenty of cheap towels—they are not used to appeasing eco-conscious thieves. According to Montana's page on energy efficient CFLs, "building owners, hotel operators and office managers complain about people stealing the CFL bulbs right out of the fixtures."

So what can be done about the problem?

More »

rumor has it

Apple Patent Watch: Apple to Turn iPhone and MacBook Into Crime Fighters

A recently discovered patent filed by Apple in 2004, seems to point to a new feature that could help protect your portable electronics from getting stolen. More »

laptops

How to Protect Your MacBook from Theft

While we sort through the story of the accidentally uploaded mugshots of alleged MacBook thieves which may or may turn out to be a hoax (we're contacting the laptop's owner for an update), our thoughts turn to how we should go about protecting our own MacBooks. If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro, here's a great way to protect your investment: Lifehacker's Adam Pash put together a clever AppleScript that will send you pictures of the thieves. More »

laptops

Dell Bundles LoJack Anti-Theft Service With Inspiron Laptops

The word on the street is that laptops get stolen. A lot. That's why Dell's announcing that customers who buy their Accidental Damage plan (CompleteCare) with their laptops will receive a Computrace LoJack system as well. Bundled with select Inspiron notebooks, this laptop-LoJack allows the company to track down and recover your computer. More »

home entertainment

PS3 Grey Market Watch: Fraudulent PS3 Theft

Some teenaged GameStop employees decided it would be a great idea to report on the day before launch that the four PS3 consoles were stolen from them at gunpoint. More »

Apple Store Robbed, AOL Rubs It In Contextually A case of poor timing for contextual ads, or is AOL rubbing it in? Thieves raid Apple employee store for third time [AppleInsider] Thanks Edward!

gadgets

More Gadgets = More Robberies

In Britain, or as we say in America, Land of the Funny Talkers, robbery rose by 5% over a period of three months this year. Though the headline read something like, "iPods Alone Are Completely Responsible for Crime," here is what the chief constable had to say: More »

cellphones

RIM's Working On An Anti-Theft Device For BlackBerries

RIM's working on a wireless anti-theft device designed to keep track of your BlackBerry when you forget to. This device constantly monitors whether your BlackBerry is in range, and when you get pick-pocketed, the device tells your BlackBerry to switch to theft mode. If a certain key isn't entered in a certain amount of time, the BlackBerry becomes non-functional. More »

clip

How To: Steal a Laptop


Here's a video of a lucky thief lifting a laptop from a computer store. We say lucky because the guy looks super conspicuous, wearing an oversized coat while store workers rock short sleeve t-shirts. He walks around like a spaz, pacing and fidgeting. And if that weren't enough to give the whole caper away, all of a sudden, The Pink Panther soundtrack starts playing in the store. Sheesh, guys, if you're going to steal, read The Art of Shoplifting first, mmm-kay? More »

portable media

2.32 Million Dollars Worth of DS Lites Missing In Hong Kong

It's a City On Fire over in Hong Kong as a container with $2.32 million USD worth of Europe-bound Black DS Lites went missing. If not recovered, these DS Lites will probably be sold on the street for Bloody Money, leading to a sad Autumn's Tale for Nintendo fans in the EU. Authorities are hoping for some Drifter Love and are offering $1 million HKD ($128,831 USD) as a reward for anyone who can provide them with a tip. Here's hoping for A Better Tomorrow. More »

cellphones

Samsung Bans SCH-B570 From Internal Use

Even though Samsung made the 8GB phone, they're not allowing them inside their premises. Reason: data theft. More »

laptops

Thieves Using Laptops To Steal High Tech Cars

The ballsy blokes suspected to have stolen two of Becks' BMW X5s did so by using software on a laptop to hack into the car's computer. Once in, they opened the doors, started the ignition, and drove away with the feeling you only get when you steal from a guy who can afford it—not that we know what that feels like, or condone theft in any way. More »

software

A Modern Watergate

A Hungarian political group has stolen a page out of Nixon's playbook by replicating the Watergate scandal. This situation is a little more dicey because the roles have been reversed and some more high-tech methods have been used. The opposing party in Hungary has now openly admitted to hacking into the servers of the opposing governing party to steal almost 3,000 documents about campaign related information. Much to the disappointment of Bob Woodward, the opposing party has already admitted guilt and claimed it was an over-achieving employee doing the hax0ring. More »